tells me owt.I’ll keep it short.Folk don’t reckon.Soft in the head. To share’s forbidden.Grip my hand, ladfor soresand livelong pain.Smell this breath,for rotten airthat’ll make you gip.Others are stench.Others touch, poison.Use ’em.Abuse ’em.In face swearersdo my head. Spoutin’ “I’m your mate.”“You’re me dad.”“I love you.”“You’re family.”Abusers. Shop ’em.Don’t come close again, lad.These boots are fedon […]
Category: Poetry
Eating from an Imaginary Spoon – Allison Grayhurst
Sensual as clay laced with warm water, hard as a window barred – and still the seeds are thrown though I don’t know why – there is too much earth and almost no sun, there are slimy ponds that beasts and fowls eliminate in – spotted with dead-fish-eyes and not at all like heaven is […]
Visitor – David Spicer
Good morning. Call me Visitor.I won’t torment you by quotingyour Book of Revelation oroverwhelm you with diatribesabout racial and religiousdivisions, for you’re all fools.I won’t surprise youwith an invite to my chaletsand their spreads, won’ttreat you with your kid glovesor a meal of goulash perfectedin a taxi’s backseat. But feel freeto tickle me in […]
TIES AND DRESS SHIRTS ARE NO LONGER REQUIRED – Colin James
Abused and tortured, acrimoniously displayed on Dragon Poles, some of us were able to get a leg up bodies into the wind, like flags or something. Others were a disappointment still standing on end. Of course the crowd complained withheld their encouragement, only cheering […]
Roach – Wayne F. Burke
I drove all night10 hours,central Florida, Northmy two buddies passed-outin the seatsthe Volkswagen Beetle enginehummingthe black nightthe bugs hitting the windshieldlike ping pong ballsI smoked a roachthe car began to floatthe road a golden pathwaya Donna Summer songon the radioI felt like the only personin the worldawakein the land of the snakeand crocodileon the […]
‘Nightfall’ & ‘Soulless’ – Jen Persichetti
NightfallDark velvet nights and betrayal consume meIt’s been an eternity since I last saw the sunEmotions ran high that night, as we recited our truthI reminisce on the past as if it was an hour ago…You would always list my worst qualities before my bestI admire your manipulation –To this day I have no […]
The Unfinished Child – Julene Tripp Weaver
walks toward the barren doorway for answers.He finds voices hidden in the cavern of a shell.The unfinished child sleeps restless nights withno dreams, he fits in the tip of a dirty pinky fingernail. A long train carries the unfinished child one lifeto another riding cattails in wind. He resists openingdoors in daytime. It was a nightshade […]
Glass Enclosure – Ryan Quinn Flanagan
There was a glass enclosure inside the glass enclosureto keep everything in –the glass most of all, being so breakable and dangerousto elastic blood-flush skin;dermis in the sciences, like calling a secretaryan administrative assistanteverything made more complicated than it had to beso that simple understanding could not be hadand when questions arose they were […]
I woke – Matthew J Hall
from a bleak sleepmy eyes were soreand streamingin my dream I saw godhe was a sad typedeprived of sleephe was sittingin a chairin a small roomI spoke to himI said,hellohe openedhis eyesbut he couldn’tseehe said,I don’t knowwhat to doI said,nobody doeshe was stilllikeold stonehe didn’t tell mebut I could tellhe’d forgotten howto movehe said,I’m so […]
Style Section – Jonathan May
the Four Seasons in the forest city has no menu;guests forage from what the chef tosses out—chanterelles, licorice, octopus, crème anglaiseeven the giant bird people drop an elk by(on occasion) and society women in Commedes Garçon ravage it with their naked mouthssusurrus of leaves and wings please auralpalates—ambiance fit for that important lunch;remember to […]